Dan Fielding: Assistant D.A.

There's an episode of "Night Court" that has Dan, the oversexed prosecutor, that gets put in a hospital after a night of rambunctious filthy birthday sex with Sheila, a reoccurring dominatrix character.
He ends up in a hospital where he is looked on by his co-workers and...some would say friend.

Dan doesn't really learn much from the episode. In fact, we learn more about him. During the scene where Judge Harry Stone, the young goofball appointed to the bench by accident, tells Dan to slow him down. And he pushes Dan to share with him what has been bothering him. Dan snaps at him. And Harry leaves in a huff. Dan is self-destructive, why bother?

Well, Dan slips into a coma. To which harsh words hang in the air. And regret, of course. When Dan comes to from the coma, he goes back to his ways, concealing his pain through jokes. He is determined to live the way he lived. Harry is fed up. Until Dan finally relents...he is 40 years old. He doesn't expect to live further than 50. And the one line that echoes in my mind "I HAVE no life, Harry, I have a lifestyle!"

This shook me. Because many in this town can share this sentiment. We pretend we have a life, but we dance around without a connection with anyone. We have a lifestyle. A real talk with people. With people who care whether we live or die. Dan, we'd assume, was living the free-spirited bachelor life, but instead has continued to live in abject misery, convinced the many beautiful women he's banged don't care for him. He pushes away before it gets to that point. Hollywood is very much like that. And the people who come here, have no real connection. Because we are gypsies. We bounce from people to people. In a sad attempt to prove people care, they test them with bad behavior. No one will stick around that long to deal with bad behavior. Not even Mother Teresa.

Dan is a fun loving character full of spirit and it doesn't appear anything bothers him, when in reality he's miserably lonely. Desperately seeking that one woman who does want to be an adult with him. This cycle is near impossible to crack. We're selfish people by nature, more so if the world offers you things. I think that's why if you work in Hollywood, it's certain you will learn in a harsh term, people's value. In this town, many people will remind you how little that is. Try to be around the people who value you for being you. And don't confuse that "you" for what they think you are but what you really are: human.